Greg Wilhoit
Greg Wilhoit grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the second of three children, in an average, middle class, Christian family. He was a Boy Scout, played sports, and was in the bell choir at church. He attended the University of Oklahoma, but left his sophomore year to pursue a career as a journeyman ironworker. He loved being an ironworker and contributed to many of Tulsa’s most impressive structures. He owned his own home and was leading a comfortable life.
In 1983 he married Kathy Godwin, and their first daughter, Kristen, was born in 1984. Ten months later, Kathy gave birth to their second daughter, Kimberly. Greg loved his family, but in May 1985 he and Kathy separated to try and work out some problems. Kathy, Krissy and Kim moved into an apartment across town, but Greg saw them almost daily.
On June 1, 1985 Kathy was found brutally murdered in her apartment. A neighbor had heard Krissy and Kim crying and called the police. Greg was home alone sleeping, so he had no alibi, but he never dreamed anyone would think that he had anything to do with Kathy’s death. He tried to get on with his life, working, raising his daughters and grieving the loss of his wife.
Almost a year later, Greg was stunned when he was unexpectedly arrested and charged with Kathy’s murder. The prosecution’s case was based on the statements of two dental “experts,” one of whom had been out of dental school less than a year, who said that a bite mark found on Kathy’s body matched Greg’s teeth.
Greg’s parents hired two well known Tulsa defense attorneys who spent a year on the case but never looked at the evidence, talked to any witnesses, or tried to find another expert to examine the bite mark. They tried to get Greg to accept a plea bargain, which he refused to do. As Greg said, “They couldn’t grasp the concept that if you’re innocent, you don’t plead guilty.”
Three weeks before Greg’s trial was scheduled to start, he fired his attorneys and hired a lawyer who had a reputation as one of the top defense attorneys in the state to represent him. He assumed his attorney would ask for a continuance so he would have time to prepare for the trial, but his attorney said that wasn’t necessary. Unfortunately, even though he had at one time been an outstanding attorney, that time had passed.
Unbeknownst to Greg or his parents, in the preceding years the attorney
had become an alcoholic and had developed alcohol-related brain damage. He
embodied the definition of an incompetent attorney and did no preparation
whatsoever for Greg’s trial. He appeared in court drunk, threw up in the
judge’s chambers, and literally put on no defense. Since the jury basically
only heard the prosecution’s case, Greg was found guilty and sentenced to
death. At the sentencing, Greg said, “The judge told me I was to die by
lethal injection. ‘If that fails we’ll electrocute you. If the power goes
out, we’ll hang you. And if the rope breaks we’ll take you out back and
shoot you.’”
Greg was sent to death row in McAlester, Okla., which he thought would be
the last home he would ever know. He was assigned an attorney, Mark Barrett,
from the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System to handle his appeal. Barrett was
convinced of Greg’s innocence and worked tirelessly for more than four years
to help correct a terrible wrong. The 12 top forensic odontologists in the
country examined the bite mark evidence and all 12 testified that the bite
mark could not possibly have been Greg’s.
A new trial was eventually granted and Greg was out on bail for two years, with the nightmare he was living hanging over his head while the district attorney decided whether or not to retry the case. A second trial was held in 1993, but after the prosecution presented its case – without the bite mark evidence, which had been disqualified – the judge issued a directed verdict of innocence and Greg was cleared of all charges.
Greg moved to Sacramento, Calif., where he still lives today. He lost eight years of his life, the opportunity to raise his daughters, and his livelihood, and he suffered health problems from his experience. He is now on Social Security disability for post-traumatic stress disorder. He has never received an apology or one penny in compensation.
Despite the challenges he continues to face, Greg is moving forward with his life. He has found that sharing his story about the horrors of the death penalty and the fallibility of the justice system gives him a purpose. His hope is that when people are educated about the death penalty and are face-to-face with a living example of how easy it would be to execute an innocent man, that the tide in this great country will turn and we will end this barbaric practice forever.